Article Posted on : - Sep 05, 2011

An Orion vision navigation sensor mounted on a robotic arm docks with a full-scale space station docking port in Lockheed Martin’s Space Operations Simulation Centre in Denver. A Lockheed Martin photo.

DENVER (BNS): Lockheed Martin’s Space Operations Simulation Centre (SOSC) has completed its first orbital simulation test with hardware and data that was flown on NASA’s STS-134 space shuttle Endeavour mission to the International Space Station.

During STS-134, the Endeavour crew successfully tested the test for STORRM (Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation) unit’s Vision Navigation Sensor (VNS) and Docking Camera during docking and undocking operations with the space station.

“The test went perfectly and we were able to recreate the STS-134 STORRM test in a flight-like environment right here on Earth,” said John Karas, Vice President and General Manager, Human Space Flight, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

“We’ll compare the data and telemetry we collected in the lab with the on-orbit data and telemetry to calibrate the SOSC to a real space environment, further increasing the fidelity of this extraordinary facility for future simulations,” he said.

The VNS, an eye-safe laser ranging system, was mounted on the SOSC’s large motion base carriage which is capable of providing the six degrees of spacecraft motion at equivalent rates in the identical approach and departure trajectories of STS-134, a company statement said.

A full-scale, high fidelity mockup of a space station docking port equipped with reflective sensors served as the target environment for this demonstration.

Lockheed Martin’s SOSC test environment was used to accurately replicate the hardware, lighting conditions and vehicle motion that was observed on orbit, and validated its ability to provide an on-orbit simulation environment for critical risk mitigation for the Orion spacecraft, it said.